Munitions
by TheDusty321
Summary: The sequel to 'A Voice for Big Mickey'. In this, Big Mickey recounts the story of Bluenose and Kraka-Toa. A surprise guest awaits at the end.


**Like I said before, I do not own either Thomas & Friends or TUGS. Both belong to their respective owners.**

* * *

The next morning, Bill and Ben were at Brendam Docks, bringing in china clay from the Clay Pits. They saw Big Mickey loading flatbeds and decided to be mischievous.

"Let's mess with that one, Bill," whispered Ben.

"I agree, Ben. He's silent, so we can't possibly get in trouble," whispered Bill.

They didn't know that Big Mickey had gotten his voice back the previous day. So, once the twins were uncoupled from their trucks, they raced toward the flatbeds and biffed into them, giving Big Mickey a shock. The twins felt pleased with themselves, but Big Mickey soon recovered from his shock and was now very cross.

"What is it with you two and causing mischief?!" he shouted.

Now the twins were shocked.

"Since when could he talk?!" squeaked Bill.

"Since yesterday, you two," Edward said as he puffed in, "I have half a mind to tell the Fat Controller about this."

"Oh, please don't tell him, Edward! We're very sorry!" the twins said.

"All right, but you must apologize to him," Edward said, gesturing towards Big Mickey with his eyes.

The twins reversed until they were facing Big Mickey.

"We're very sorry, Mr. Crane!" they said.

Big Mickey sighed.

"Well, you're lucky it was only building materials! The last time someone interfered with my loading, there was a major disaster!" he said.

The twins gasped.

"Really?!" they asked.

"Yes!" Big Mickey said simply.

"Arr, could you tell us, matey?!" Salty asked as he was being uncoupled from his trucks.

"Might as well, it began something like this!" Big Mickey said and the story began.

* * *

There was a large harbor called Bigg City Port. It was run by cranes, trains, and, most importantly, tugboats. The tugboat, for its small size, was the most powerful craft afloat. It would tow in ships coming in from the sea. There were two major companies that used tugboats. One was the scheming Captain Zero and his tugs, the Z-Stacks, pronounced as Zed-Stacks. And the other was the honest Captain Star and his Star Tugs. Big Mickey worked for neither of them and simply worked with the tugs and generally favored the Stars. He had recently helped both compete for a contract from the steel company, supporting the Stars. The Stars had won the contract because one of the Z-Stacks had failed to account the high tide that day and wrecked the supports of a steel bridge with a tall load.

* * *

One morning sometime after the incident, Hercules, one of the Star Tugs came in towing a Naval tramper called Kraka-Toa. Munitions were to be loaded into it, along with fuel. Anyone with a brain knew that it was very dangerous to put the two on the same ship.

"My, Hercules, you look tired!" Big Mickey observed.

"I am Mickey dear! It's been a rough journey!" Hercules answered.

They both heard a whistle. A small Naval tug came in. His name was Bluenose.

"Attention! Attention! You! Hercules!" Bluenose yelled.

"Attention nothing! I'm finished here, old darling! Moving out!" Hercules snapped.

"Oh no, you don't! Not until I've checked things out!" Bluenose countered.

"Check all you like, sweetheart! I'm needed elsewhere!" Hercules said.

"You're under Navy jurisdiction! Obey orders! And wait until I've made my inspection!" Bluenose yelled.

"I _am_ under jurisdiction! Captain Star's! A little weight washer like you doesn't tell _me_ what to do!" Hercules argued.

"Ah-ha! We'll see about that, laddie!" Bluenose said.

Ignoring Bluenose, Hercules started moving away.

"Hercules! Wait! Stay right where you are! That's an order!" Bluenose shouted.

"Tootle loo!" Hercules said as he went away.

"You Star civilian! I'll get you in a Naval convoy one day! And then I'll teach you a lesson or two! And then you'll know what orders are all about!" Bluenose called.

Bluenose soon started bossing everyone around, thinking he was in charge. Both Star Tugs and Z-Stacks found him annoying and simply ignored him.

* * *

Night soon came and Big Mickey was loading munitions into Kraka-Toa from barges the Z-Stacks had brought over. Soon, only the Z-Stack leader Zorran's barge was left. Zebedee, the tug who had wrecked the steel bridge; Zak, his partner in the steel and munitions jobs; and O.J., an old paddle-driven Star Tug, were also there. Big Mickey still had to be careful, however, as his job wasn't over yet. One last minute slip-up could mean disaster.

"I'll be glad to get rid of this lot," Zorran said.

Then, everyone heard a familiar whistle.

"Attention! Attention!" a voice called.

"Oh no! Here we go!" Zorran groaned.

It was Bluenose.

"I'm coming alongside! Move aside! You, with the circle on your stack! Move!" he ordered.

"Eh?! You don't mean _me_ , mister, do you?!" Zorran asked.

"Yes, you, mister! Move that barge! My load's fast!" Bluenose answered.

"You shouldn't move a barge that's being unloaded!" O.J. warned.

"Get pension off, old timer! This is my pool! I say what goes!" Bluenose shouted.

"Go and draw your pension, O.J.! You've passed it!" Zebedee joked.

"Shut it! The paddler's right! We aren't moving that barge, mister!" Zorran told Bluenose.

"I want this fuel unloaded NOW!" Bluenose said, not listening to reason. "Oi, you! Corky! Interrupt your loading this minute! And leave those munitions, right now!"

"Ah! He's a brave tug, ordering a shore crane around!" Zak remarked.

"Yeah! Nobody tells Big Mickey what to do!" Zorran added.

"Well, I do! And I'm in charge, so obey orders!" Bluenose argued.

A switcher pulled in with an oil barge. This was another Star Tug and his name was Ten Cents.

"Hey! What's going on?! Schedule says I'm next!" Ten Cents said in confusion.

"Don't you start, laddie, with your tongue!" Bluenose yelled.

"I'm coming alongside!" Ten Cents said. "This barge has to be unloaded! I've got orders, too!"

"Who's orders?!" Bluenose asked.

"Captain Star's orders! I'm coming alongside!" Ten Cents declared.

"We'll see about that! Now, just move aside and let me through!" Bluenose ordered.

"Bluenose! Stay back! That barge is unsafe!" O.J. warned.

Still not listening to reason, Bluenose continued on.

"Do not give _me_ orders! If I want to move, I move!" he yelled.

Bluenose approached the barge.

"I told you to move it!" he shouted as he bumped his barge against Zorran's.

This caused a gunpowder barrel to tip over and catch fire.

"Now look what you've gone and done!" Bluenose yelled.

"You dummy!" Zorran yelled back.

"Oh no!" Ten Cents cried.

"I'm in charge! Stay where you are!" Bluenose ordered.

"No way! I know what's on that barge! Get clear! The whole thing's gonna blow!" Zorran shouted as he backed away.

"Stay where you are!" Bluenose ordered again.

"Emergency! Emergency! Clear the area immediately!" Big Mickey yelled.

"Stay still and obey orders!" Bluenose cried out, as some of the munitions exploded.

"Move out! Move out! Save yourselves!" O.J. shouted. "Ten Cents! Cut your barge rope and pull free!"

"My barge is clear, but Bluenose is blocking the way!" Ten Cents called.

"I know what to do! Stay still!" Bluenose said, seemingly oblivious to the nearby explosions.

"Oh, come on, Bluenose! Cast off! Let's get out of here!" Ten Cents yelled.

"I can't! I can't!" Bluenose cried, with more munitions exploding, "I can't!"

"Try harder, Bluenose!" Ten Cents said.

"My engine's cut out!" Bluenose explained.

"O.J.! His engine's out! I'm going to help!" Ten Cents called.

"Don't be a fool, Ten Cents! Get out of there!" Zorran yelled.

He's right! Move!" O.J. added.

"He's got himself into this! Leave him!" Zorran yelled, not seeming to care what happened to Bluenose.

"It's too dangerous, Ten Cents!" O.J. warned.

"You're coming with me, Bluenose!" Ten Cents said.

"Keep going, Ten Cents! Keep going! The tramper's on fire! It'll blow any second!" Big Mickey yelled.

"Don't you move _me_! I've got m-my orders! And they say I am loading fuel!" Bluenose said.

"You can load all you want after I get you out of here!" Ten Cents said. "Hey, O.J. What should I do with him?"

"Put him at the back! Out of the way! We don't want any more of his orders!" O.J. ordered.

"Oi! This is a mutiny! Take me back immediately! Obey orders! Obey orders! Orders is orders!" Bluenose said defiantly.

Emergency alarms sounded from the dock. There was then an explosion below Big Mickey.

"Oh no," Zorran said, "Big Mickey's dock is going up."

"Move out, everyone!" O.J. yelled. "He's going to fall!"

"Stay where you are! I'll tip clear!" Big Mickey said.

"Hope Big Mickey gets it right. Otherwise, he'll sink us all," Zorran said.

The dock Big Mickey stood on began to give way.

"Big Mickey!" Ten Cents cried as he watched Big Mickey fall over.

"He's done it. He's falling sideways," Zorran said.

Bluenose hollered as Big Mickey hit Zorran's barge and sank into the water, never to be seen again.

"Well, that was too close for comfort," Ten Cents sighed.

"It took real skill to make that move," O.J. remarked.

"He saved us all for sure," Ten Cents added.

Big Mickey had remained underwater and never witnessed the end of the disaster. So, his story ended there.

* * *

"Sometime after that, I was salvaged by the Fat Controller with a damaged voice box and set to work here on Sodor!" Big Mickey told his audience, which had grown significantly as more engines and people overheard and came to listen to Big Mickey's story. "I still wonder, to this day, if my friends are all right!"

The Fat Controller was among the audience and decided to contact the Captain Star that Big Mickey had mentioned. He climbed into his car and drove back to his office. The rest of audience was shocked and amazed. Bill and Ben really did feel lucky that Big Mickey hadn't been loading munitions when they biffed the flatbeds earlier. The story over, each member of the audience went back to work. Cranky had heard the story too.

"And I thought I had it bad," he muttered to himself. "I'd take a lack of sleep over munitions any day."

Bill and Ben stayed to talk with Big Mickey.

"Thanks for telling us about that, Big Mickey! We are sorry for what we did!" Bill said.

"You think you'll be loading munitions again, Big Mickey?!" Ben asked jokingly.

Big Mickey laughed.

"I seriously doubt it! A railway like this has no place for munitions!" he said to the twins.

"Right you are, Big Mickey!" Edward agreed. "Off you go, Bill and Ben!"

Bill and Ben left for the Clay Pits.

"There's no real harm in them, Big Mickey!" Edward said. "But, they're maddening at times!"

Big Mickey chuckled.

"'Maddening'? That sounds about right!" he said.

"Indeed!" Edward said, "Goodbye!"

Edward puffed away. Big Mickey sighed.

"I do hope they're all right," he said to himself about his friends.

* * *

A surprise came a week later. As Big Mickey was working, he heard a whistle he hadn't heard in a long time. He turned and saw a switcher come in. He had a red smokestack with blue and white stripes at the top with a white number one on the front and a white star on either side. The switcher also had a yellow body with what looked like a blue hat on top of the wheelhouse. Big Mickey couldn't believe what he was seeing.

"Big Mickey! I never thought I'd see you again!" the switcher cried.

Sure enough, the name 'Ten Cents' was painted on each side of the bottom portion.

"Ten Cents!" Big Mickey cried. "I don't believe it!"

"Well, you better believe it!" said a voice.

Both friends turned to see the Fat Controller.

"Oh, are you 'Sir Topham Hatt'?" Ten Cents asked.

"Yes, Ten Cents, I am the man who called your honorable Captain Star to see if he could spare you! Big Mickey told me that he misses you and the others terribly and I wanted to cheer him up!" The Fat Controller said.

"Well, thank you very much, sir!" Big Mickey said.

"You're very welcome, Big Mickey! Now, I must be going!" The Fat Controller replied and left.

"So, how is everyone, Ten Cents?!" Big Mickey asked.

"They're just as they were before! Except for Grampus! He's one of us now!" Ten Cents answered.

"Captain Star bought Grampus?! When?!" Big Mickey asked.

"After the Navy tried to use him for target practice! They said he was too old and not useful anymore!" Ten Cents explained.

"Ha! People say that about me, but I don't care!" Edward said as he puffed in. "I couldn't help but overhear! I am sorry!"

"Who are you?!" Ten Cents asked.

"I'm Edward! And you're Ten Cents, I'd wager?!" he asked.

"Yes, I am! Nice to meet you, Edward!" Ten Cents said.

"Nice to meet you too, Ten Cents! Carry on, you two!" Edward said as he puffed away with some trucks.

So, Big Mickey and Ten Cents did just that.

"Say, what happened after I sank?" Big Mickey asked.

"Well, the Fire Chief arrived with Sunshine and Warrior and they managed to put out the fire! But, before that, we had to get Puffa out of there!" Ten Cents told Big Mickey.

"What else?!" Big Mickey asked.

"The oil barge I brought in caught fire and I had to push it out to sea! Once that was done, I started to back away! But, then it blew up in my face! Lucky it only knocked out my lights and put water in my engine! Of course, I wouldn't have made it back if it weren't for Grampus! Lastly, O.J. told me that Kraka-Toa couldn't take all those explosions and sank! So, yeah! That's what happened!" Ten Cents finished.

Big Mickey took it all in.

"Then, it truly was a disaster, as I had told Bill and Ben!" he said.

"Bill and Ben?! Who are they?!" Ten Cents asked curiously.

"Two mischievous twin tank engines that work for the nearby china clay company! They biffed the flatbeds I was loading the other day! I then told them about Bluenose! They don't play so many tricks on me now! They will occasionally, however, because that's who they are!" Big Mickey explained.

"I see! Well, it's getting late, Big Mickey! See ya tomorrow!" Ten Cents said when he saw that the Sun was going down.

"Yeah! See ya, Ten Cents!" Big Mickey replied.

Ten Cents went away, looking for a place to sleep. Big Mickey was both happy and relieved. Happy that he saw Ten Cents again. And he was relieved that everyone was all right. Thinking of it, he was also happy that the Navy had sold Grampus to Captain Star because he was now safe from the Navy. Adding that Thomas helped to give him a new voice box, Big Mickey was the happiest he had been in a long time. Ten Cents soon started working for the Fat Controller at Brendam Docks, but that's another story.


End file.
